Sixers reportedly made the Kawhi Leonard trade offer we all expected

Sixers reportedly made the Kawhi Leonard trade offer we all expected

From the moment the Philadelphia 76ers were linked as a potential trade partner for Kawhi Leonard, most analysts and fans put together a projected package which would have made sense for the 27-year-old star.

The offer expected to come from the Sixers side included Dario Saric, Robert Covington, and Miami’s 2021 first-round draft pick. Give or take another first-round pick, in the eyes of some.

And as ESPN’s Zach Lowe revealed shortly after the San Antonio Spurs had struck a deal to send Leonard to the Toronto Raptors, it seems those who guessed the above package are the big winners.

While the Sixers made the offer of Saric, Covington and the highly-intriguing first-rounder, the Spurs were apparently uninterested. Instead, their focus was on landing a superstar, as Lowe revealed San Antonio required either Ben Simmons or Joel Embiid in a deal.

There was no chance Simmons or Embiid were getting dealt, but the above package the Spurs turned down is arguably more appealing than the one they eventually moved Kawhi for.

In the end, Leonard and Danny Green went to the Raptors in exchange for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and a 2019 first-round pick which is protected from selections 1-20.

Obviously, the key difference in the two deals is that Toronto offered an established All-Star, as opposed to a young player quickly on the rise in Saric, a talented all-around player in Covington and a potentially very strong first-round pick.